A Hogwarts Sunday
by repressedemotions
Summary: 6th year. Various characters navigate through Hogwarts on a not-so-typical Sunday, with events including Harry and Ginny's first date and Luna and Neville's quest to befriend some unusual creatures.
1. Chapter 1

Ron was pointedly absent, but Hermione sat on the bed, staring up at Harry as he tried on his sixteenth (yes, she had counted) outfit. She had watched a horrifyingly old grey jumper become the traumatic experience that was his flamingo print shirt, become one of Harry's rather extensive collection of The Beatles t-shirts, become a plain white t-shirt that would have been fine had he not paired it with yellow trousers, become the denim on denim on denim that he was currently wearing. At the disgust that he found on her face, Harry turned back around and started to look for outfit number seventeen. Hermione sighed as she saw salmon pink make its way out of a wardrobe that was surely too small to contain such atrocities. She finally jumped off the bed, shoved Harry aside and ventured into a nightmare-inducing place that she immediately regretted entering.

Hermione was by no means a fashion expert, which is why she was so angry at Ron for stating that his incomplete potions essay was imminent and that the library was crucial; although she would never admit it to his face, Ron was somehow the best dressed of the trio, and this fact angered her almost as much as the fact that he had abandoned her. Hermione was definitely more skilled than Harry, but considering that the clothes of his childhood consisted entirely of too large hand-me-downs and that his heart probably soared when receiving anything that didn't have a hole in it, Hermione found it difficult to feel the good kind of superiority. The sixteen outfits were but a small portion of Harry's fabric-filled morning as he had skipped breakfast to carry out a preliminary clothes testing, and Hermione shuddered at the mere thought of the clothes that Harry had deemed to be significantly worse than those he had shown her.

Through a collective effort that Hermione led, they finally settled on a simple navy blue t-shirt with even simpler black jeans and shoes that were the closest to (and yet so far away from) smart that Harry owned. She then attempted to run a comb through his hair, ignoring all of Harry's protests, and this attempt lasted a whole five minutes out of her sheer determination, but when it comes to Harry's hair, even Hermione had to give up. Finally, with wandwork that was far more advanced than that of others her age, she smoothed out the numerous kinks in his glasses frame because she believed that small details like these were what creates the biggest impact; he looked cleaner, sharper and more mature with his straitened glasses, but what caused this change was so subtle that most people wouldn't notice it, so they would associate the better appearance with the face itself. At least, that was her logic, but she could tell that Harry didn't entirely follow it since, when she explained it, he wore his typical homework expression – blank, but trying to not be so blank. Hermione appreciated him trying and gave him a peck on the cheek. Affection was oozing out of her this morning. Two of the most important people in her life, two people who had liked each other for far too long now, two people who she believed couldn't be more perfect for each other, were going on their first date. Aside from Harry and Ginny themselves, Hermione was probably the happiest with this development.

She took a few steps back and found herself smiling at the result. "Definitely cleaner, sharper and more mature," she murmured to herself. But it was more than that; his eyes were greener than she'd ever noticed with nothing else stealing their attention, his skin appeared to be glowing beside the dark colours he wore, and the pure happiness that she found on his face made him more handsome than anything she could have done with the clothes and the hair and the glasses.

"Are you ready?" Hermione asked.


	2. Chapter 2

Luna saw Neville sitting beside Seamus and Dean, but she felt as though he wasn't really there. Her heart ached for him because she had an understanding (that was far too thorough for her liking) on being present physically but not mentally. People often believe that fault lies in the person performing the zoning out, and that may be true to a certain degree, but the environment, the situation and particularly the surrounding people play huge contributing roles. If you feel unseen, you don't physically disappear, but you begin to believe you do, so you begin to dissociate from your body. Luna, because of her understanding and her huge lioness heart and her lack of adherence to societal rules and her general Luna-ness, walked away from her house and sat beside Neville on the Gryffindor table. She saw his startled expression, but she simply smiled at him then reached out to pile eggs onto her plate.

Luna, however, followed one societal rule that she had been taught long ago. She learnt it as a child, with her feet dangling off the dining table that she sat on, staring wide-eyed at her mum who practically shone in the bright kitchen light as she gently chastised, "You shouldn't speak while you eat, Lulu." So, until her plate was as empty as she could make it, Luna sat in silence beside a bewildered Neville.

After her last bite, she wiped her mouth, then turned and said, "Hi."

"Um, hi," Neville replied, though it sounded more like a question.

Luna was used to this slight raising of pitch towards the ends of sentences as it occurred a fair amount when people spoke to her, so she continued as though he had greeted her with the greatest of confidence. "How are you?" she asked.

"I'm okay."

"Oh. Why are you only 'okay'?"

"Um… I don't know." Neville stared into Luna's eyes for a while, then perhaps understanding the care in their endless nature, he finally said, "I guess I just feel a bit off today."

"Because Harry, Ron and Hermione aren't here?" Luna softly probed.

Neville looked away at this point. "Maybe. I don't know. Anyway, how are you?"

Inferring Neville's desire for a change in subject, she let her smile resurface and exclaimed, "The sky is clear and the air is warm. I'm perfect!" Neville laughed at this and Luna, taking this as a good sign, offered, "Do you want to do something with me?"

"Like what?" he asked.

"Well, tonight is the end of dandelos' sixteen lunar cycle hibernation! They are only awake from dusk 'til dawn, and I really want to see them, so I'm going to spend the day collecting dandelions and swirls in oak bark and hopefully silver grass if I can find any! Then the night will be with them."

"Firstly, what is a dandyload?"

"They're called dandelos. Of the creatures that you know, they probably resemble fairies the most. But they are so much more! They're beautiful. They have big eyes that tilt upwards and noses that come to a sharp point and no mouths or ears because they communicate telepathically. Oh, also, they fit perfectly in your palm and their skin emits moonlight, so it's like you're holding light! And their hair is so thick that their entire scalp is covered by only seven hairs which never fall out and they're kind of indestructible. Their tears are-"

"I haven't heard of them before," Neville interrupted.

Luna slowly closed her mouth that was open in a mid-speech type of way. She was used to people interrupting her or talking over her or ignoring her as she spoke, but she didn't expect it from Neville. She thought Neville cared more than that. She decided that she should lower the level she believed their friendship to be since she had obviously overestimated. "People don't really believe in them. People are blind that way."

"Have you ever seen them?"

"Well not-"

"Are they actually real?"

At this most recent interruption and his evident lack of faith in her, the pale-faced, shiny-eyed and dirty-blonde-maned cover that Luna wore cracked, and she snapped, "Well I guess they're not."

After moments of awkward silence, Neville said, "I'm sorry." Shame choked his voice and he barely managed a whisper.

Luna sighed, then replied, "No, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to shout."

"Don't worry, when people should at me, it's usually much worse," Neville said with a smile, but Luna found no happiness in it.

"I have also had terrible things shouted at me. It's why I don't shout; there are enough people making other people feel terrible about themselves, and I refuse to be one of them."

"You're not. You're one of the few people I can be around and not feel incompetent" he said, turning slightly pink and looking down onto his lap.

Luna barked a surprised laugh. "In comparison to me?"

Neville eyes jumped to hers, his eyebrows drawn together and his head violently shaking from side to side. "No, no, no! It's not that. No, Luna. It's like, uh, when I'm around you, I don't feel the need to live up to this idealistic version of me, a version that I am constantly attempting to be, or at least attempting to appear to be, but can never be. What's worse is that the idealistic version of me is so much less than the normal versions of others. What's left without the façade is actually me, and I feel as though I can be myself around you. And, for some crazy reason, I feel more than the idealistic me that I portray." Neville was almost gasping for breath after his lengthy admission. Luna's silence unsettled him, so he said, "That was so messily explained, I'm sorry. What I mean is-"

"No. It was beautiful," Luna said, tears gathering in her eyes.

Neville nudged her knee with his, then, with a sheepish grin stretched across his face, said, "Tell me more about the danle… the dandley… the dandelos?"

"Um…"

"Please?"

"Okay, well my father says that they form eternal friendships with the first human that they see after they wake from hibernation!"

"That's incredible, but, uh, if they're only awake one day per sixteen years, what's the point?" Neville asked slowly, afraid of offending her.

"Well, you know, friendship! But they also wake and fight for their friends if they're ever in mortal danger!"

"I'm in mortal danger every other Tuesday, and I bring it upon myself, so my poor dandelo is going to have a very disturbed sleep."

"You'll come?" she whispered as though unsure whether or not to hope.

"I guess… Yeah, I will actually. You sure you don't mind me tagging along?"

"Neville, I would truly love it," Luna said with a radiant smile.


	3. Chapter 3

Ginny had probably looked at her reflection more times this morning than she had in the past year. She wanted to look perfect – she had been waiting for this for six years – she wanted everything to be perfect. And with the desire for perfection came the nerves. She hardly had three hours of sleep and had no food for the past eighteen hours, but instead of her brain being tired and her stomach rumbling, her mind was filled with frantic half thoughts colliding into one another and she felt a second away from being sick all over the mirror. She looked at her reflection and saw what were more likely to be described as under eye suitcases rather than bags as well as a too pale and slightly green complexion, and she thought that she was the furthest thing from perfect.

It was almost eleven, so despite that fact that her heart was going through a series of some sort of unhealthy spasm, despite the fact that her lungs had lost the ability to inflate sufficiently thus she was left breathing strange frequent and shallow breaths and despite the fact that her stomach was twisting and stretching and flying and crashing, Ginny made her way down to the common room. She encountered what felt like thousands of pairs of eyes on the way there, which didn't particular help with the whole anxiety situation.

"Ginny!"

She heard someone call out her name and she decided that she was, in fact, going to be sick. Thankfully, when she turned to locate the source of the voice, it wasn't Harry that she found.

"Fred!" Ginny exhaled in relief, then after a second, said, "Wait. I'm fairly certain you're no longer a student here."

"Yes, yes, I'm old. I get it. You and your youth don't have to rub it in so much. I have feelings too, you know."

Ginny laughed. "Shut up. What are you doing here?"

"We, uh, snuck in."

"You _snuck_ in?"

"Yup."

"Of course you did," Ginny sighed. "Why?"

"We missed the place. Plus, we thought that we could do a bit of Wheezes promotion for the younger kids. George is in the bathroom doing that as we speak. Oh, those poor children…" Fred trailed off.

"You can't just sneak into Hogwarts, Fred. You know that there have been attacks in the school, and with You-Know-Who and all his Death Eaters out there, this is not safe."

"Don't you dare become a voice of reason! I thought that you were better than that!"

Ginny suppressed a smile and said in her best chastising-Molly impression, "Fred."

He refused to be moved. "Where is the girl who balded a five-year-old Ron as he slept?" he asked.

Ginny bit the inside of her cheek to prevent a betraying laugh.

"Where is the girl who deceived her poor mother and father as they believed her to be safely tucked away in bed, when in actual fact, she was out until the early hours of the morning playing with, and by 'playing with' I mean 'terrorising', the chickens?"

Ginny bit harder.

"Where is the girl who suggested the iconic hovering legless chair dinner prank?"

At this, Ginny lost her pretence of control. She burst out laughing, and Fred's laughter joined hers. "Dad's face, though," she remembered happily as she wiped away small tears that had gathered in the corners of her eyes.

After a few moments of silence, Fred said, "Where is that girl who-"

"Okay, okay, enough," Ginny interrupted. "Just be careful. Please."

"Anything for you, sis." Fred smiled, then after finally looking at her properly, said, "Hang on. Why are you all dressed up?"

Ginny had slipped so easily into the sister that she loved being and she had forgotten about the date, hence the nerves had ceased but they came crashing into her with a force that compensated for their momentary absence. Before she could answer, she saw movement from the corner of her eye. She focused on it and found Harry making his way towards her. She felt her heart lift slightly, her fingertips tingle and her toes unconsciously curl, however embarrassed she was to admit that to herself.

"Hey! I'm so sorry I'm late," Harry said.

"It's fine," Ginny said to his feet, unable to look up for some reason.

"Wait. What?" Fred stared open mouthed at the two of them, piecing together the situation before him.

"Fred?" Harry inquired with a bemused expression.

"You mean Ron didn't come crying to you the second it happened?" Ginny asked bitterly.

"He actually didn't. I'm both proud of him and incredibly annoyed at him. When?"

"Just yesterday, okay. Shut up."

"Is this your first date?!" Fred asked with undisguised glee.

"Please shut up," Ginny said, looking away.

"This is incredible."

"Stop."

"I mean… Wow."

"Fred."

"Fine!" Fred said with a theatrical sign. "I'll leave you two love birds to it."

Ginny had become increasing red during this conversation and there was no longer a distinguishable line between her hair and her skin. To say that she was mortified would be an understatement.

"Remember safe sex, kiddies," he said with a wink.

Ginny simply gaped at him, speechless, wishing that she had either the ability to make everything around her disappear or the ability to make herself disappear into her surroundings.

"Bye, Fred," Harry firmly said, finally speaking, then he placed his hand on Ginny's back and steered her towards the door.

At the feel of Harry's hand through the thin material of her dress, Ginny was overwhelmed. His hand was cool and strong, but she felt increasingly hot. With heat came melting, and as she walked away from Fred, she felt her entire body liquefy; she was surprised that she still possessed the bodily structure to take step after step, but she thankfully managed to walk by focusing all of her efforts on it. She barely registered Fred as he shouted "Condoms!" at them as they left.


End file.
